Boettger v. Loverro

502 A.2d 1310, 349 Pa. Super. 134, 12 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1573, 1986 Pa. Super. LEXIS 13588
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 3, 1986
DocketNos. 1035, 00984
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 502 A.2d 1310 (Boettger v. Loverro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boettger v. Loverro, 502 A.2d 1310, 349 Pa. Super. 134, 12 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1573, 1986 Pa. Super. LEXIS 13588 (Pa. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinions

SPAETH, President Judge:

This appeal is from a judgment awarding damages to appellee under Section 5725 of the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act, 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 5701 et seq.1 Appellant, a newspaper, published an article containing quotations from the transcript of appellee’s wiretapped conversations. The transcript was attached to the Commonwealth’s answer to a motion for discovery, filed incident to the prosecution of appellee, and was given to one of appellant’s reporters by the clerk of the court. In addition to statutory and constitutional arguments, appellant argues that it is exempt from liability for publishing information of legitimate public concern obtained from court records accessible to the public. We agree that when enacting section 5725, the General Assembly intended such an exemption. We therefore reverse and enter judgment for appellant.

I

The trial court has summarized the facts, which it noted were largely undisputed, as follows:

[137]*137On November 17, 1981, the state police secured a wiretap permit from the Attorney General. Under the permit, a private citizen named Wayne Dickinson consented to a phone tap. On November 19, 1981, the state police intercepted a telephone conversation between the plaintiff [appellee] and Dickinson. During the conversation, plaintiff revealed his involvement in the acceptance of illegal bets on college football games. On December 12, 1981, the state police raided plaintiffs home. After the search, he was arrested on charges of bookmaking, pool selling and conspiracy. A preliminary hearing resulted in the charges being bound over for criminal court. On February 9, 1982, a motion for discovery was filed in the criminal case. The motion included a request for production of a transcript of the wiretap. Inadvertently,□ the district attorney attached a copy of the transcript to his answer and filed it with the clerk of court. To make matters even worse, the district attorney did not direct the clerk to impound the file.
With these highly sensitive records lying outside the court’s direct supervision, the stage was set for the unusual happenings which subsequently took place. On March 31, 1982, a suppression hearing was held in the criminal case. The hearing was open to the public. Among the observers was Thom Loverro, a reporter for the Easton Express.3 He covered the hearing because he expected that the evidence would disclose the contents of the wiretaps. But, he did not get his story in the courtroom. As he sat there, the hearing judge disposed of the motion to suppress without ever getting into the contents of the tapes. When the hearing ended, Loverro went to the office of the clerk of court; and, he asked to see the case file.4 Not being subject to impoundment, it was made available to him. In the file, Loverro discovered a transcript of the wiretaps. He made extensive notes of its content. Later that same day, he returned to his office and began writing a story based upon the excerpts taken from the transcript of the wiretaps. However, the story was withheld for approximately seven days. In the [138]*138meantime, Loverro discussed the running of the story with his superiors. On April 7, 1982, the managing editor approved publication. The newspaper article contained quotations from the transcript of the wiretaps.

Slip op. of tr. ct. at 2-3.

Appellee’s complaint, which was filed on April 13, 1982, named as defendants both appellant, as the publisher of the Easton Express, and its reporter, Loverro. Appellee sought to recover on two grounds: the common law tort of invasion of privacy, and the cause of action for unlawful disclosure or use created by section 5725. During the trial, in September 1983, Loverro was dropped as a defendant, N.T. 130-31, and the action for invasion of privacy was withdrawn, id., 91. The trial court denied appellant’s requested points for charge and directed a verdict in favor of appellee on the issue of liability for unlawful disclosure or use, appellant excepting to the direction. The jury then returned a verdict of $1,000 actual damages (the statutory minimum), no punitive damages, and $17,409.43 for attorney’s fees. Appellant filed a timely motion for judgment n.o.v. or new trial. On March 6, 1984, the court en banc, composed of the trial judge alone, denied the motion. Judgment was entered and this appeal followed.

II

We may first consider appellant’s argument that when read literally, section 5725 does not make unlawful appellant’s publication of a newspaper article containing quotations from the transcript of appellee’s wiretapped conversations. The argument may be disposed of summarily-

Section 5725 creates a cause of action against “any person who intercepts, discloses or uses” the communication of another person when that communication has been “dis[139]*139closed ... in violation of this chapter.” 18 Pa.C.S. § 5725(a). The disclosure by the clerk of court of the transcript of appellee’s wiretapped conversations was in violation of the Act, for the transcript was required by the Act to be sealed, 18 Pa.C.S. § 5715, and had it been sealed, appellant would have had no right to see it, Commonwealth v. Frattarola, 336 Pa.Super. 411, 485 A.2d 1147 (1984). In publishing the newspaper article containing quotations from the transcript, appellant both “disclose[d]” and “use[d]” appellee’s intercepted communication.

Appellant argues that it acted “with a subjective good faith belief that they [appellant and its reporter] acted legally pursuant to a court order and that the belief was reasonable.” Brief for Appellant at 24. Subsection (c) of section 5725 does provide that “good faith reliance on a court order” is a defense to an action for unlawful disclosure or use. Had there been a court order directing the clerk to unseal the transcript of appellee’s wiretapped conversations, this defense might have been available to appellant, but there was no such order.

Ill

We may consider appellant’s remaining two arguments together. These arguments are: that appellant is exempt from liability under section 5725 because the information it published was of legitimate public concern and was obtained from court records accessible to the public; and that if section 5725 does seek to impose liability on appellant, it is unconstitutional as a violation of the freedom of the press protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

Appellant has from the outset, in its answer, and throughout, in its motion for summary judgment, requested points for charge, and motion for judgment n.o.v., argued that it is exempt from liability under section 5725. In making this argument, appellant has cited the Fair Report Privilege recognized in the Restatement (Second) of Torts [140]*140§ 611 (1976).2 Appellant has not, however, presented its constitutional argument with equal consistency; although making the argument in its motion for judgment n.o.v., appellant did not make it in either its pleadings or its requested points for charge. Accordingly, as such, the constitutional argument has not been preserved. The argument is nevertheless before us indirectly, or, so to speak, by the back door.

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Related

Boettger v. Loverro
555 A.2d 1234 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1989)

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Bluebook (online)
502 A.2d 1310, 349 Pa. Super. 134, 12 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1573, 1986 Pa. Super. LEXIS 13588, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boettger-v-loverro-pasuperct-1986.